Mauricio Pochettino puts onus on himself for academy growth

Mauricio Pochettino is taking responsibility for the growth of the Tottenham Hotspur academy. He thinks they are doing a great job at the youth levels, but the block with the young players has been with the senior team, and he intends to change that.

"The young players here are of a similar standard to Southampton’s, only we need to take time to give them the chance to play. At Southampton, they give the youngsters the possibility to play and that is the difference," Pochettino told the Standard.

"Tottenham have spent a lot of money on the academy and creating a magnificent training ground and now we need to get the benefit from that. We have to create the structure to provide the chance to play in the first team."

The man deciding whether the kids play is Pochettino, so it's on him to give them playing time. That means the academy products will see the field.

Right now, Spurs have Danny Rose, Andros Townsend, Harry Kane, Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason as academy products in the first team. They also have promising players like Tom Carroll and Milos Veljkovic out on loan, both of whom could feature for Spurs in the next year.

Pochettino showed a willingness to play youngsters at Southamtpon, but they are a club that has always played academy products. That is their culture, and it starts at the top. It looks like Pochettino wants to bring that same culture to Spurs, and he is at the top so he can make it happen.

"We need to find the balance between buying players and promoting those from the academy who deserve to play in the first team."

They're doing everything right. Now it's just a matter of playing the kids, and Pochettino says he is going to make that happen.